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Video: Authorities hunt down escaped wild animals

Transcript of: Authorities hunt down escaped wild animals

BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor:We begin tonight with a strange and sad story out of
Zanesville
,
Ohio
. It started with a local man known as something of an eccentric and a criminal who'd served time in prison. He kept a
wild animal
preserve on his property, big exotic
animals
, the kind we see in zoos, until last night when he released the
animals
and
took his own life
. Police responding in the dark to protect the families in the area had no choice but to draw their weapons and bring down the
animals
. Those still on the loose today were tranquilized, taken away. The 48 dead
animals
include 18 endangered
Bengal tigers
, and there are only about 2500 in the world. Tonight in
Zanesville
it's mostly the scene of a terrible waste and a rekindled debate over private rights vs.
animal welfare
. We have two reports tonight, beginning at the scene with
NBC
's
John Yang
.
John
, good evening.

JOHN YANG reporting:Good evening,
Brian
. It was a tense and terrifying night. Fifty exotic
animals
roaming the hillsides. Not only those 18
Bengal tigers
, but 17 lions. The sheriff said that they were big, mature and aggressive. Sheriff's deputies pursued them with assault weapons. Their orders were simple: Shoot to kill. By the time the sun came up in
Zanesville
, most of the
animals
that had escaped from
Terry Thompson
's farm were gone.

YANG:It had been a nerve-racking night as local news broadcasts warned residents.

CABOT REA reporting:Stay inside. There just might be a lion, a tiger or a grizzly roaming in your neighborhood.

YANG:Thompson
, the owner of a 73-acre
exotic animal
farm, had apparently set most of his
animals
free and then
took his own life
.
Fred Polk
, one of
Thompson
's neighbors, saw many of the
animals
on his property.

Mr. FRED POLK:I seen some
mountain lions
and African lions and, I think, three bears. One of the bears charged a deputy and the deputy shot it.

Sheriff LUTZ:We don't go to the academy and get trained on how to deal with 300-pound
Bengal tigers
.

YANG:Danielle White
and her two children live right next door. For them it was a terrifying night.

Ms. DANIELLE WHITE:The gunfire was very close to the house. I almost felt at one point that it may have been right in the backyard.

Offscreen Voice #1:That is a bear.

YANG:Today, schools were closed as a precaution amid new questions about the animal's owner. Neighbors and other area residents called
Thompson
eccentric. Late last month he was released after more than a year in federal prison on gun charges. Six of his
animals
, including three leopards, have been safely taken to the
Columbus Zoo
, but scores of others had to be killed to protect a community.

Mr. JACK HANNA (Columbus Zoo Director Emeritus):Tragedy for the
animal world
is what it is. It could have been a bigger tragedy for the
human world
, and that's what we tried to avoid here.

YANG:Tonight most of the exotic
animals
have been returned to
Terry Thompson
's property and buried there.
John Yang
, NBC News,
Zanesville
,
Ohio
.

STEPHANIE GOSK reporting:This is
Stephanie Gosk
. An
animal control officer
shot a monkey on the loose last week in
St. Cloud
,
Florida
. This
mountain lion
attacked and mauled a four-year-old in
Texas
earlier this month. Both cases of
exotic pets
on the loose.

Mr. JEFF CORWIN (NBC News Wildlife Expert):In the
United States
today there are thousands of people who keep exotic
animals
as pets. Globally, the market trade of creatures is a $20-billion-a-year industry.

GOSK:Buying an
exotic animal
can be as easy as a click of the mouse. One site has up to 600 for sale. But
state
laws vary widely on regulating who can own what depending on where they live. According to the
Humane Society
of the US, 12 states ban the private possession of exotic
animals
, 28 states have restrictions and 12 states have almost none.
Ohio
is one of those states.

Offscreen Voice #2:Damn, you got to be nuts if you want to keep one of these.

GOSK:A new documentary highlights the sometimes murky business of
exotic animal
sales.

Mr. MICHAEL WEBBER ("The Elephant in the Living Room" Director):I went to
exotic animal
auctions and I had to go undercover, and I actually had to go with bodyguards, too, because they didn't allow cameras in there.

GOSK:Scott Shoemaker
in
Nevada
is raising 30
animals
, including six tigers and a 550-pound
African lion
. He says he spent more than $100,000 in caging and nine-feet wire fencing for his 10-acre property.

Mr. SCOTT SHOEMAKER:Some guy lets his out. It's obviously not a caging issue, not a safety issue. The guy obviously had a mental issue. And why would I get lumped in with him? We have taken precautions here in being responsible.

GOSK:Tonight the pressure is on
Ohio
Governor
John Kasich
to change the law. His office has been re-evaluating a proposed ban on
exotic pets
,
Brian
, that would have prevented today's incident.

WILLIAMS:Stephanie Gosk
and
John Yang
starting us off tonight from
Zanesville
. Thanks to you both.

ZANESVILLE, Ohio — The last wild creature thought to be missing after a night of mayhem on an exotic-animal farm was accounted for late Wednesday — a monkey carrying a potentially deadly virus apparently was eaten by one of the 49 carnivores shot by sheriff's deputies.

The tragedy unfolded overnight Tuesday on a 73-acre farm near Zanesville. As neighbors nervously took cover indoors, officers spread out through fields and woods to hunt down about 56 animals, including lions, tigers, bears, wolves and monkeys.

Schools had closed in the mostly rural area of widely spaced homes 55 miles east of Columbus. Parents were warned to keep children and pets indoors. And flashing signs along highways told motorists, "Caution exotic animals" and "Stay in vehicle."

At an Wednesday afternoon news conference, Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz said most of the danger had passed: 48 animals had been gunned down, and six captured alive and taken to the Columbus Zoo, authorities said. The animals killed included 18 rare Bengal tigers, 17 lions, eight bears, three mountain lions, a baboon and a wolf, he said.

That left just two animals at large: a wolf and the monkey.

By midafternoon, the second wolf was reported shot dead. The last animal, a monkey infected with herpes B virus, was found to have been eaten by one of the large cats, Lutz told NBC station WCMH.

The owner of the privately run Muskingum County Animal Farm, Terry Thompson, left the cages open and the fences unsecured before committing suicide, Lutz said earlier.

Authorities would not say how he killed himself, and Lutz wouldn't speculate on why he did it or why he went out with what appeared to be one last act of vengeance.

But Thompson had had repeated run-ins with the law, and Lutz said the sheriff's office had received numerous complaints since 2004 about animals escaping from the property. Thompson had gotten out of federal prison just last month after serving a year for possessing unregistered guns.

"This is a bad situation," the sheriff said earlier. "It's been a situation for a long time."

Lutz defended his shoot-to-kill order, saying "we were not going to have animals running loose."

The animals that were shot were buried on the Thompson's property at the request of his wife, the sheriff said.

Lutz said when deputies arrived at the property, there was about an hour and a half of daylight left. He said officers had to shoot some animals at close range with their sidearms.

Heather Ellers And Dustin Burton
/
AP

A dead lion lies by the fence on Terry Thompson's farm near Zanesville, Ohio, on Tuesday.

"These are 300-pound Bengal tigers that we had to put down," he said.

"I gave the order on the way here that if animals looked like they were going out, they went down ... We could not have animals running loose in this county, we were not going to have that," Lutz added.

Police said Thompson had gotten out of jail recently after doing time for gun violations. Authorities have also responded to several complaints about wild animals housed on his farm, Lutz said.

"He was in hot water because of the animals, because of permits, and (the animals) escaping all the time," said White, the preserve's neighbor. A few weeks ago, she said, she had to avoid some camels which were grazing on the side of a freeway.

At a nearby Moose Lodge, Bill Weiser remembered Thompson as an interesting character who flew planes, raced boats and owned a custom motorcycle shop that also sold guns.

"He was pretty unique," Weiser said. "He had a different slant on things. I never knew him to hurt anybody, and he took good care of the animals."

Killing animals 'breaking my heart'
Weiser said he regretted that the escaped animals had to be killed. "It's breaking my heart, them shooting those animals," he said.

Bailey Hartman, 20, also said it saddened her that the animals were being shot. But, she said, "I was kind of scared coming in to work."

Hartman said Thompson's wife, who no longer lives with him, was her teacher in middle school and used to bring small animals such as a monkeys, snakes and owls to school. "It was a once-a-year type of thing, and everyone would always get excited," she recalled.

Thompson had permits to keep four black bears, said Laura Jones, a spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The department licenses only native species, Jones said Wednesday.